The 16 Axes of the Parascience Spectrum

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of social function and existential significance. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Explanatory-Comforting (aims to explain phenomena vs. aims to provide comfort/meaning). Axis 14: Transformative-Confirmatory (challenges worldview vs. reinforces existing beliefs). Axis 15: Communal-Private (shared practice vs. individual exploration). Axis 16: Dangerous-Harmless (potential for harm vs. benign). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every parascientific phenomenon, every spiritual tradition, every fringe inquiry. The 16 Axes reveal that parascience isn't a single thing to be accepted or rejected—it's a vast landscape of human inquiry operating alongside science, serving different needs, making different claims, offering different gifts and dangers. Some parascience is testable and failing—that's pseudoscience. Some is untestable by nature—that's spirituality. Some is testable and promising—that's emerging science. Some is metaphorical and meaningful—that's poetry dressed as fact. Some is dangerous—cults, anti-science movements. Some is harmless—personal spiritual practice. The 16 Axes don't tell you what to believe—they give you language to ask better questions. What kind of parascience is this? What are its axes? What does it claim, what does it offer, what does it risk? The answers aren't one-dimensional—and neither is the inquiry.

The 16 Axes of the Parascience Spectrum "You want to know if parascience is valid. The 16 Axes ask: which parascience? What are its coordinates? Testable? Compatible? Experiential? Subjective? Explained? Traditional? Insider? Integrative? Universal? Empirical? Literal? Practical? Explanatory or comforting? Transformative or confirmatory? Communal or private? Dangerous or harmless? Sixteen questions, sixteen answers, and only then can you even ask about validity. And the answer won't be one word—it'll be sixteen coordinates in a vast space of human knowing. That's not relativism—that's just respecting the complexity of how we seek meaning, truth, and healing beyond the lab."

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026